You’ve launched your e-commerce store, and now you’re wondering what’s next. Just like Peter, you want to be able to tell the world about your great product, and you want to be able to do it frequently and consistently. With a little planning and strategizing, you can use the following tips to drive hundreds, or even thousands, of extra visitors to your site every month:

1. Build a community.

The first step to increasing website traffic is to build a community. Your community should consist of people who are interested in the type of products you sell. Once you have a small group of people who are regularly interacting with you on social media, you can start building a relationship and eventually turn those people into customers. Having a small, but active community is one of the most effective ways to generate interest and gain support for your business. If you want to learn more, here are some good examples of how brands build communities.

2. Use social media for marketing.

Making sales directly from a social media channel is an excellent way to grow your online store. With social media, you have the opportunity to reach thousands or even millions of people with your latest posts. While you may be tempted to try and make a sale every time someone follows or subscribes to your channel, this could easily become overwhelming. Instead, try and engage with your audience on a regular basis. Whether you have a new product to promote or you want to share a blog post from a contributing author, continue to sprinkle in relevant content throughout the month.

As a brand, your goal should be to produce engaging content that will keep your audience coming back for more. If you want to become a successful e-commerce brand, you need to master the art of effective content marketing.

3. Use SEO to drive traffic to your site.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most effective ways to increase the amount of traffic to your site. When a potential customer types in a keyphrase or keyword related to your product or service, your website will show up on the first page of search results. When someone clicks on your webpage from an organic search, they may have already had an interest in your product or service, but they chose to explore more on your site rather than a competitor’s.

Many businesses completely overlook the power of SEO, thinking that once their website is ranked, the work is done. However, if you want to be able to capture all the organic traffic, you need to continue to work hard at getting more of these “free” clicks.

4. Use paid ads to drive traffic to your site.

While SEO is free, paid ads are pretty affordable, especially when compared to the amount of traffic they can generate. Paid ads allow you to target a specific group of people who are most likely to purchase your product. Depending on your budget, you can determine how many ads you want to run and which ones to target. If you want to stay within your budget, you can start off with some highly targeted display ads or brand ads.

Once you have a small amount of experience with paid ads, you can explore the many varieties of paid social media marketing, which is what we at Bloomreach specialize in. With paid ads, you can gain high engagement and low cost per click. While these figures may seem high, you need to keep in mind that you are not paying for each person who clicks on your ad, only for those who click on at least one of your ads. In addition to paid ads, you can use other types of paid content, such as case studies, to grow your audience. Think of these paid content pieces as mini ads that will eventually become extremely valuable.

5. Experiment with social media marketing.

As a business owner, marketer or entrepreneur, you may wonder what social media marketing strategies to use to grow your business. There are a variety of options, and trying out several different strategies can help you find what works best for you.

Some businesses use social media to promote their products and engage with their audience. For instance, if you sell swimwear, you could use social media to promote your brand and give your audience advice on what to wear while swimming. Try out different tactics and see which ones work best for your business.